surrounded

The Surrounded, D’Arcy McNickle's first book, was first published in 1936 by Harcourt, Brace and Company then republished in 1964 and again in 1978 by the University of New Mexico Press. McNickle was a Cree Métis author enrolled as Salish-Kootenai on the Flathead Indian Reservation.The Surrounded takes place in the Sniél-emen Valley, which translates to “Mountains of the surrounded,” on the Flathead Reservation in Montana at the ranch of Max Leon, Archilde's father.
The story begins with Archilde Leon, who is half Salish and half Spaniard, returning from Portland where he worked in white society. Upon his return he feels separated from his homeland and culture. The story follows Archilde's internal struggle between Euro-American and American Indian culture, as he attempts to reconcile with his father and find his place in a community while he deals with the death of his brother and his mother's murder of a game warden. Struggling to reintegrate himself into Salish culture, repair his family bonds, and escape criminal charges, Archilde finds himself trapped in the crossfire as outside forces attempt to decimate his tribe's way of life.The Surrounded received praise for its ingenuity, and reviewer Louis Owens believes this novel led to an Indigenous literary movement more notable than the Harlem Renaissance. In “You Can't Run Away Nowadays: Redefining Modernity in D'Arcy McNickle's The Surrounded,” Alicia Kent states that The Surrounded resembles a “coming of age” story as Archilde attempts to find his path and place in life, but the story also mixes in modernist style—highlighting themes concerning disillusionment, despair, displacement, and liminal spaces. Reviews by Olive La Farge, J. MacMurrough, and Louis Owens all comment on how McNickle's ability to detect and clearly depict the struggle to coexist in seemingly opposing worlds sets the standard for Indigenous literature.

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